Bittrex to Delist Bitcoin Gold Over 51% Attack

Over the last nine months, news.Bitcoin.com has reported on the many misfortunes the project Bitcoin Gold (BTG) has experienced. The forked protocol has been mired with issues and controversy since the day the project was announced will be delisted from the exchange Bittrex. The Seattle-based trading platform says they lost over 12,000 BTG during the network’s 51% attack, and the firm had asked the BTG development team to compensate them for the loss.

The Bitcoin Gold Project’s Constant Dilemmas

At news.Bitcoin.com we’ve reported on Bitcoin Gold (BTG), a fork of Bitcoin Core (BTC) numerous times, as the project has constantly been the center of many controversies. The project was first announced as a BTC fork that would attempt to be ‘ASIC resistant‘ by utilizing a consensus algorithm called Equihash. Unfortunately for the team, the project has been plagued with constant issues and contentious announcements like the development team choosing to claim a pre-mine before launch. Then there were third-party wallets that allegedly stole people’s keys, and of course, the cryptocurrency’s horrendous market performance since BTG started trading. Then, this past May it was discovered that Bitcoin Gold was not so ASIC resistant as the network was manipulated in a 51% attack.

Bittrex to Delist BTG Because of the 51% Attack

Of course, the development team vowed to fork the currency so it could change the consensus algorithm to be ‘ASIC resistant’ and the protocol was changed, but exchanges had lost a lot of money due to the 51% attack. Numerous exchanges including Binance, Bitinka, Bitfinex, Bittrex, Bithumb, and Hitbtc lost funds and the hack resulted in a total loss of around 388,000 BTC or $18M USD at the time of the hack. Bittrex lost approximately 12,372 BTG and asked the BTG development team to compensate the firm for the losses, according to the BTG organization.

“We regret to inform our community that the crypto exchange Bittrex has decided to de-list BTG after we declined to pay them 12,372 BTG to remain listed,” explains the BTG team. “Bittrex informed us that they make this decision because the BTG team would not “take responsibility for our chain,” and that taking responsibility meant paying Bittrex 12,372 BTG to cover the loss they incurred.”

They later informed us they would cover part of the loss from their own BTG reserves and requested we pay the remaining ~6000 BTG, and that if we did not, we would be delisted.

BTG 51% Attack Begs the Question — Is a Network That Claims to be ‘ASIC Resistant’ Responsible for Exchange Hacks?

According to the BTG developers, they did not accept the 6,000 BTG offer and will still be delisted from the Seattle-based exchange. The BTG team instead explains how they helped Bittrex and other trading platforms when the attack had occurred the best they could. BTG developers detail they took “every reasonable step to try to help ensure Bittrex’s safety against this threat.” Moreover, the BTG organization says that other exchange owners can be sure in the future they will be of assistance.

With cryptocurrencies that have very little to no hash power-backed security, exchanges are taking a big risk by listing certain digital assets, as BTG is not the only cryptocurrency network that’s suffered from a 51% attack. However, the BTG team initially claimed the network would be ‘ASIC resistant’, a promise they could not fulfil.

What do you think about Bitcoin Gold being delisted from Bittrex because of the 51% attack? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comment section below.

Images via Shutterstock, Bitcoin Gold, and Bittrex logos.

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Jamie Redman

Jamie Redman is a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source code, and decentralized applications. Redman has written thousands of articles for news.Bitcoin.com about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

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